I was glad to see a comment pointing out hikers responsibility
For Atkins, the issue on trails like the one on Kelso Ridge is with users not understanding the limitations of the apps, especially inexperienced hikers.
“It’s not an AllTrails issue per se,” he said. “Even if she’d had a regular topo map, it would tell her where to go, but it doesn’t tell her how to get through the terrain. The limitations are not necessarily with the apps, they’re in people’s abilities to perceive the terrain around them.”
Our trails are developed using many different sources including satellite imagery, country-specific maps, Mapbox, OpenStreetMap data, AllTrails user-contributed recordings, comments and edits, and extensive research conducted by our in-house trail data integrity team,” Praznik explained via email. “Our team also works closely with parks and land managers to curate the routes we provide users. We apply our proprietary trail-clustering algorithms on top of these different inputs, and we are continually improving our trail quality via machine learning.”
@bradrh Congrats on getting some good publicity for the group’s work!
I agree with you comment about individual responsibility. Dunning-Kruger comes to mind - Once people get a little experience they vastly over estimate their abilities. On more than one occasion I have seen people at the Keyhole on Longs Peak insisting on continuing (the most dangerous and difficult part is after the Keyhole), even though they are puking (a sign of altitude sickness).
I do find it quite laughable that they are promoting the COTREX app as it is full of errors! At least on the Front Range of Colorado, I find OSM far superior as a source of trail data. If land managers were really serious about getting accurate data into these third party apps they would first make sure they had accurate data for the trails that they manage. COTREX is maintained by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and even trail data for State Parks and State Wildlife Areas - which they manage - leave a lot to be desired. I have created over 70 videos[0] about the errors in COTREX, including trails that are mislocted by up to 1/3 mile, trails they are missing that exist in reality (and have signs along them indicating they are official)[1], trails they do depict which physically do not exist[2], and trails where the trail numbers in their app do not match the signs along the trails[3]. In one case I found that OSM had a whole network of mountain bike trails in a Colorado State Park, but they were missing from COTREX. I called the park office to ask if they were official - yes, and they were rightly quite proud of them! I next asked why they were not in COTREX “… what is COTREX?” came back the reply after a long uncomfortable pause.
Speaking from an outsiders point of view (Austria, Europe) – you are spot on. At least, regarding the completeness of what exists on the ground. With details though, a bit left to desire, consumers have to do a lot of data-mining in extracting value.
